Deut 31:6 – Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Here is a wonderful promise from God taken from Deut chapter 31 and repeated in Hebrews 13, that when a person comes to faith in Christ and follows after Him, we never need to fear that He will abandon us or forsake His promised covenant with us. We will never be able to say, I have followed after God, I have devoted myself to him and his ways, but he forsook me and did not keep his promise. If for some reason, after we have come to Christ and committed ourselves to the pursuit of God, we have a sense of distance between ourselves and Him, we can be assured that the source of the problem rests with us, not with Him. It may be simply a lie of the devil, and we need to resist him and draw nigh unto God in full assurance of faith. It may be that we have become complacent in our devotion and have gotten our focus off of Him and on to other things and we simply need to turn back and re-fix our eyes upon Him and diligently seek Him. It may be that we have allowed some measure of bitterness, sin or self-indulgence to take root in our lives and have grieved the Holy Spirit, so we have, by design, lost a measure of His comfort and need to repent and forsake that sin which is hindering our fellowship with Him.

Unfortunately, modern day Christianity has taken this wonderful promise, that was meant to comfort those who have truly committed themselves to Christ, and have turned it into licentiousness. We have taken this promise, which was meant to comfort those who are faithful, and tried to make it a blanket promise that covers anyone who has ever made a profession of Christianity. We have told those who have become complacent and stubborn and have not continued to walk in godliness, “now, you should do the right thing, but don’t worry, you can be assured that no matter what, He is still with you regardless and will never leave you, nor forsake you”. We have misused this passage to try and give comfort and assurance when no such comfort should be given, but rather warning instead.

Regardless of how sincere our devotion and commitment to Christ may have been at one time, regardless of how much headway we may have made in Him, if we draw back in our faith and turn from his ways and no longer walk in a manner that is pleasing in his sight, the Lord will chastise us and bring pressure to bear to bring us back, but if we stubbornly continue in that state, refusing to repent and return to Him, He WILL eventually let us go. I realize this may be a hard pill to swallow and probably goes contrary to just about everything you have ever heard, but one needs simply to continue in Deut 31, where this promise originates, to see this play out as a warning to us. We cannot claim a promise from scripture, and then ignore the condition of that promise laid out later in the very same chapter.

Deut 31:16-18 – And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I WILL FORSAKE THEM, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Some will say, well that was Old Testament and thankfully God has now changed and no longer requires us to keep covenant with him in faith. But that is false, God still requires US to exercise an abiding faith and patience in order to obtain the promise.

Heb 6:11-15 – And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through FAITH AND PATIENCE inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had PATIENTLY ENDURED, he obtained the promise.

And so it continues with His people today. We have a better covenant and better promises in Christ, but they are still obtained only as we continue in faith and patience. If we remain faithful, continuing to forsake our sin, walk in righteousness, and follow diligently after Him, then we can be assured that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.